{"id":4190,"date":"2003-05-01T11:29:52","date_gmt":"2003-05-01T11:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=4190"},"modified":"2003-05-01T11:29:52","modified_gmt":"2003-05-01T11:29:52","slug":"at-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=4190","title":{"rendered":"at the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was the White<\/p>\n

House Forum on American History, Civics, and Service<\/a><\/b>, a big event<\/p>\n

in my field. Our Civic<\/p>\n

Mission of Schools<\/i> <\/a>report was distributed to all 250 of the White<\/p>\n

House’s guests and received a lot of attention.<\/p>\n

The Forum exemplified official Washington<\/b>. The President delivered<\/p>\n

an especially prepared greeting from a gigantic video screen. Much was<\/p>\n

made of his new initiative to support history teaching. The First Lady<\/p>\n

and Lynne Cheney, guarded visibly by the Secret Service, made speeches;<\/p>\n

and everyone stood each time one of these women took the podium. (Some<\/p>\n

of the sanctity of high executive office transfers to spouses, apparently.)<\/p>\n

Patriotic video montages of American history were displayed on the screen.<\/p>\n

A huge reproduction of a manuscript copy of the Constitution was the backdrop<\/p>\n

all day. Teenagers were paraded (silently) on stage and bedecked with<\/p>\n

medals—quite literally. Speakers were introduced with long recitals<\/p>\n

of their achievements; there was also much thanks to funders and assembled<\/p>\n

dignataries. Almost all the speakers quoted at least one framer of the<\/p>\n

Constitution (often deploying little-known and highly relevant quotes—to<\/p>\n

their credit). Martin Luther King Jr. was also cited widely; and many<\/p>\n

sentimental stories were told about disadvantaged children. No one mentioned<\/p>\n

the name of a political party or a major ideology, lest the spirit of<\/p>\n

nonpartisanship be disturbed. There was general air of congratulation,<\/p>\n

directed at the people and organizations in the room and at America itself—with<\/p>\n

one exception: at least half the speakers wagged their fingers at young<\/p>\n

Americans today for their shocking ignorance of history. <\/p>\n

My academic training makes me want to rebel against this kind of show.<\/p>\n

I want to ask: What do we know about the trends in historical knowledge<\/p>\n

over time? What do we know about the factors that make historical education<\/p>\n

successful? What is the impact of a historical education, or of historical<\/p>\n

knowledge, on people over their lifetimes? What will the impact of the<\/p>\n

new presidential initiative be? (At $100 million over three years, it<\/p>\n

represents a vanishingly small commitment in the context of the federal<\/p>\n

budget.) Since there are competing grand narratives of American history,<\/p>\n

how do we know which one is more correct? Is Howard Zinn’s story of greed<\/p>\n

and violence (which was explicitly criticized during the session) false?<\/p>\n

Is it less valid than the "moderate triumphalist" narrative<\/p>\n

that one speaker recommended as an alternative? What are the effects of<\/p>\n

such stories on youth development?<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding all these questions and doubts, I recognize that public<\/p>\n

institutions are not academic seminars. Mutual praise is oil that probably<\/p>\n

has to be poured periodically over civil society. Vague statements of<\/p>\n

commitment from the President of the United States are not empty; they<\/p>\n

are useful ammunition in struggles at the local level. And leaders are<\/p>\n

entitled to make a big deal about $100 million programs that they have<\/p>\n

proposed. You would have to be a kind of political puritan to expect them<\/p>\n

not to capitalize on the symbolism of such initiatives. It doesn’t only<\/p>\n

take truth and critical debate to make large institutions run; they also<\/p>\n

need symbolism, ritual, and even etiquette. Washington does these things<\/p>\n

well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was the White House Forum on American History, Civics, and Service, a big event in my field. Our Civic Mission of Schools report was distributed to all 250 of the White House’s guests and received a lot of attention. The Forum exemplified official Washington. The President delivered an especially prepared greeting from a gigantic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocating-civic-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}